Senior Systems Engineer: Spine Implant & Instrument Systems

Medtronic • Lafayette, CO

23h • $110,400 - $165,600 • Onsite

About The Position

Medtronic’s Cranial and Spinal Technologies (CST) Operating Unit is committed to transforming patient care through groundbreaking innovations in neurosurgery and spinal procedures. Our comprehensive portfolio includes spinal implants, robotics-assisted surgical solutions like the Stealth AXiS™ Surgical System, StealthStation™ surgical navigation, and biologics for bone healing, all designed to enhance surgical precision, efficiency, and patient outcomes. Beyond technology, we support surgeons through education, training, and clinical research, ensuring they have the tools and knowledge to achieve the best possible results. By continuously driving innovation and collaboration, Medtronic is redefining cranial and spinal care, improving lives worldwide. As a Sr. Systems Engineer, you will develop life-improving medical device products for spine surgery. Key responsibilities include collaborating with a team to design and develop new systems, implants, and instruments; conducting product and use testing; and managing system interfaces between implant and instrument hardware with enabling technologies including but not limited to navigation, robotics, and pre-operative planning. You will actively seek out Voice of the Customer (VOC) input and translate that into system, product, workflow, and interface requirements and specifications; conceptualize system and workflow solutions; and manage interfaces through system integration. You will work under general and workflow direction, may serve as key functional core team member or as an engineer on an extended team, and support multiple programs at a time. The product focus will be on spinal systems to treat degenerative, deformity, and tumor/trauma conditions. A career at Medtronic is like no other. We’re purposeful. We’re committed. And we’re driven by our Mission to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life for millions of people worldwide. We seek out and hire a diverse workforce at every level: We need fresh ideas and inclusive insights to continue to be an innovative industry leader — that’s why we make it a point to seek out, attract and develop employees who are patient-centric, passionate, and who represent the same wide variety of life experiences as our patients.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required with a minimum of 4 years of relevant experience OR advance degree with a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience
• Requires a Baccalaureate degree and minimum of 4 years of relevant experience OR Master's degree with a minimum of 2 years relevant experience OR PhD with 0 years relevant experience.
• For Baccalaureate degrees earned outside of the United States, a degree that satisfies the requirements of 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(A) is required.

Nice To Haves

• 4+ years spine, orthopaedic, or enabling technology (i.e. Navigation or Robotics) experience.
• Engineering MS degree preferred.
• Experience in Systems Engineering discipline or use of system engineering methodologies in medical devices
• Experience in product concept development, requirements management, surgical workflow development, functional analysis, use case and condition identification, interface definition and control, verification and validation on a cross functional team on complex programs.
• Experience in voice of customer collection, requirements development, analysis, allocation, review, tracing, and verification/validation.
• Experience planning and conducting user evaluations of product concepts, analyzing data, documenting evaluation methods & results, and presenting design recommendations to product teams.
• Demonstrated systems engineering, analytical, & problem solving skills
• Ability to understand spinal procedures and systems of systems.
• Experience with mechanical design, drawings, tolerance analysis, and computer-aided design.
• Familiarity with software design, algorithm design, and iterative software development practices.
• Experience working in cross-functional and collaborative team environments.
• Experience working in a FDA regulated and/or medical device environment and with ISO and Quality System Regulation requirements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability of working in a deadline driven environment managing multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Defines spinal systems and features, inclusive of software and hardware components, that meet the expectations and uses of the customer, regulatory agencies, and the business for enabled spine procedures.
• Collects and analyzes voice of the customer and voice of the business to identify opportunities for system development and generate prioritized customer needs.
• Translates customer needs into specific, well-written, high-quality stakeholder and system requirements.
• Leads and supports in person procedural and project labs in mock OR settings.
• Provides technical leadership in the definition, evaluation, and risk analysis of system designs in collaboration with other functional groups inclusive of R&D and marketing.
• This includes understanding system interfaces, surgical workflows, and architecture; defining use cases and conditions; investigating and resolving system and hardware (i.e. implant and instrument) issues; making improvements and proposing new functionality to address customer feedback and requests; and leading system-level testing activities in lab-based cadaveric environments or other formative evaluation settings.
• Documents tradeoffs, rationales, and potential solutions.
• Verifies that system requirements have been properly implemented (writing, leveling, tracing) through inspection, demonstration, test or analysis.
• Leads team in identifying and mitigating technical risks, product hazards, and failure modes related to meeting requirements for enabling systems.
• Defines and performs system validation activities ensuring the system meets user needs and intended use.
• Tests and troubleshoots functionality using hardware and capital systems.
• Performs usability studies on workflows and software interfaces with users in a mock OR setting.
• Collaborates across R&D roles responsible for development of different system elements and cross-functional partners including marketing, quality, regulatory, and project management.
• Contributes to and builds domain knowledge around spinal procedures and systems, their clinical use and application, and integration of enabling technologies into spine surgery via customer and field visits, literature searches and training.
• Supports surgeries in a hospital setting.
• Ensures personal understanding of all quality policy/system items that are applicable.
• Follows all work/quality procedures to ensure quality system compliance and high-quality work.
• Establishes and advocates for best practices and continuous improvement as to mature knowledge and processes.

Benefits

• Health, Dental and vision insurance
• Health Savings Account
• Healthcare Flexible Spending Account
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability leave
• Dependent daycare spending account
• Tuition assistance/reimbursement
• Simple Steps (global well-being program)
• Incentive plans
• 401(k) plan plus employer contribution and match
• Short-term disability
• Paid time off
• Paid holidays
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Employee Assistance Program
• Non-qualified Retirement Plan Supplement (subject to IRS earning minimums)
• Capital Accumulation Plan (available to Vice Presidents and above, or subject to IRS earning minimums)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior